Seokjin returned home in the early morning, when it was almost 5 a.m.

Still drunk and sweaty, he was leaning against the elevator wall, eyes half-closed. He drank a lot, that's for sure. And it was even more sure, he would end up puking in the morning.

He was about to press the numbers on his door but his feet stumbled on something so he looked down. He was confused to see a box and a paper there.

As his head was burning, he took those with him inside and shut the door.

Seokjin didn’t bother to change his wet clothes because he eventually would had to take a shower in a few hours. Right now, he needed sleep. A peaceful sleep.

But as he sat on the bed, his mind wandered to the things he found at his doorstep and decided to open them first. He could go to sleep afterwards.

Though he was much drunk, he was sober enough to read the letter with struggles,

“Seok Jin-ssi,

Sorry that I couldn’t say this in front of you. I practiced a lot but I thought it would make both of us feel cringe.

Thank you. Thank you for giving me a new life. For helping me and for rescuing me when I needed the most. You gave me everything I need, and thanks to you, I can lead an independent life now. You might not feel very great about this, but I'm so overwhelmed and grateful for your infinite care and affection. I respect you so much, not for your wealth or good looks, but for who you are. I hope you always find me beside you as a loyal friend and a useful secretary.

— Yoon Min.”

As soon as Seokjin read it, he yelled out in a frustrating tone and clutched the letter tightly. Eyes shutting on their own, he slapped himself and his heart for doing this to her.

He forgot her.

“Urgh, for God's sake, why am I like this?!” His hands went through his hair as he really regretted for his action. He couldn’t keep her words earlier too, this time he made a mental note not to forget it. But wow, he did it again.

He successfully for the hundredth time hurt and disappoint Yoon Min.

Seokjin lost his mind and laid on the bed with a groan. Sometimes, he hated himself too much for his foolish actions. How could he forget important things? Some things weren’t just fair. If he was in Yoon Min's shoes, he would've held a grude against him for sure.

But it made him more guilty to even guess that the next morning, Yoon Min would act just fine and pretend nothing ever happened.

Placing his palm under his head, he forcefully put himself to sleep, forgetting to check the box she gave him. For now, sleep was what he needed because his body was tired after everything and his mind was too sorry to think and do something.

-------------

Yoon Min checked the time again. It was 8:16 a.m. and there was still no sign of him opening the door.

She kept calling him and banged on his door repeatedly.

Finally after the 6th try, he picked up fortunately and groaned lowly, “W-what?”

“Sir? Wake Up! You're running late for your office.” She yelled worriedly.

She heard some confusing noises before she heard his morning, cracky voice replying, “I'm the boss, okay? I can go whenever I want. Now be a good secretary and leave me alone.”

“Oh no, you won't. Don't make me come inside your flat. I know your pin-code, remember?”

She knew her threat worked on him as he yelled at her in a whiny voice, “Yah, Secretary Song! How dare you threaten me? I'm--”

“Don't make me call Ms. Kim and tell her about how I know your pin-code.” Yoon Min intentionally sang to annoy him.

She smirked when he hung up the phone and knew he was coming to open the door.

The story of the pin-code was, Seokjin once spilled every password and pin number of his social accounts to Yoon Min because he was hella drunk and she was fighting in World War 3 to bring him back home. She didn’t get to remember each of them, but she did manage to remember his door code and Netflix password. Since then, she used this as a threat to scare Seokjin because if Jisoo got to know about this, she would surely kill him for being careless. Jisoo herself didn’t know his pin-code.

Seokjin opened the door suddenly and shot her a thousand murderous glare with his groggy eyelids. Yoon Min smirked and thought to give a savage answer but was taken aback by the sight of him,

“God, you still look drunk.”

He replied another answer, “I changed the pin-code earlier, kid. Don't you dare tell anything--”

“Yeah, if you changed it, why would you run over here so that I don't open your door?” Yoon Min entered inside his flat without adding anything further.

The CEO sighed and seriously made a mental note to change the pin-code as soon as possible.

“So...how did last night go?” Yoon Min wanted to start a healthy conversation after he came back from shower and wore his clothes. Don't misunderstand, she never saw him even half-naked; she often used to come over his place in the morning to help him prepare for his day.

Seokjin's head was still buzzing in pain and his cloudy mind was unable to think straight.

“Fine, I guess.”

He walked to the mirror to look at himself. That’s why he didn’t want to drink on weekdays. His pouffy face, red eyes made him look like a zombie. Not just that, some of the marks from last night were still visible around his neck.

He murmured lowly as he tried covering them, “Aish, why did she have to put them there?”

Yoon Min kept her face straight and unbothered; though, she felt her heart going awkward at the thought of him and Jisoo on bed, doing things.

Seokjin dreassed himself well and looked at her. “Do they show?”

“Not...entirely.” she giggled nervously because hickeys were hard to cover especially when they were on upper side of the neck.

He sighed and turned back towards the mirror to fix them again.

Surprising, but Yoon Min actually saw him in worst states. Him losing his mind, him returning home looking messed up and tired, him running a fever and looking sick, him not wearing makeup and in his natural appearance; everything. Seokjin never bothered to look good in front of her. He always acted himself and he was that's why, very comfortable around her.

Along with being a good secretary, she was a precious friend he never had in his life until he decided to bring her with him years ago.

While he was muttering a lot of swearing words for unable to hide the marks, Yoon Min had to take a step because she knew her boss was extremely bad at a few things. She walked to him and told him to sit on the bed. Seokjin was disarranged by her order at first but he did what she said and sat on the bed, loosening his collers.

She began to apply a matching concealer on his neck carefully. Seokjin was feeling embarrassed at the beginning, but he couldn’t help it. So he let her help him, after all it was her idea.

“I'm sorry.” Seokjin muttered out all on a sudden, breaking the silence.

Yoon Min stopped her action for a brief second before asking, “Why?”

“I couldn’t keep your request.” He intentionally didn’t mention the truth.

She didn’t reply, instead changed the topic swiftly, “I forgot that Mr. Jung informed me to tell you about our international hotel branch in Las Vegas. One of the employee got attention for loyal service and now the hotel is being a trending topic.”

Seokjin sighed at her behaviour, “Yoon Min, I-I--”

“There you go. All finished.” she raised her voice excitedly.

“I'm gonna get the car out. Dress up quickly, Sir. We are late.” she pretended nothing happened and walked out of his flat, leaving him by himself.

Seokjin rubbed his forehead and sighed. He shouldn’t ignore her existence and break her poor heart again and again.

-------------

It wasn’t even past noon before Seokjin heard a familiar knock on his office's door. He knew it was his secretary so he told her to come in without bothering to tear away his gaze from his computer.

Yoon Min brought a few files with her and placed them on the table.

“Team Leader Kim sent them.”

He hummed in response and expected her to leave.

But she didn’t. She was standing in front of his desk without doing anything.

Seokjin looked at her face which seemed different to him. “What?”

At first, he didn’t think Yoon Min would start acting cute in order to convince him for something. She always planned to act like a grader whenever she wanted something from him, and truth to be told, he never could guess the timing.

She had a large pout on her lips and her voice turned squeaky like a mouse, “CEO Kim, can I get an early leave today, please?” She added puppy eyes at last.

Seokjin could predict the reason behind her request. But he was also concerned about her health as she had to visit her doctor for monthly check-ups about her weak heart. So it could be the latter too.

“Is it concerning about your check-up?”

Yoon Min lied, “Yes. You guessed correct!”

Seokjin smirked at her foolish innocence, “Don't deceive me, Secretary Song. You did your checkup this month already.”

The secretary's smile faded away and sighed embarrassedly. He knew her too well. Just like she knew him.

He crossed his arms and leaned on his chair, “You want to leave early for your dramas, right?”

Yoon Min practically started begging him, “Sir, Doom At Your Service will be airing the last episode tonight. You can't possibly expect me to ignore that!”

Before he could comment, she added an important detail, because otherwise he wouldn’t listen to her.

“Also, I'm visiting your mother this afternoon. So I need to have some arrangements.”

Seokjin's cheesy smirk started to vanish slowly from his face at the mention of his mother. His half-dead mother.

It wasn’t a surprise that his secretary visited his mother once in a while to take care of her. He never told her to do it, she volunteered on her own. And that was one of the reasons Seokjin valued Yoon Min more than other things in the world.

Because she valued his old, sick mother which nobody ever did. Not even Jisoo. Heck, she never even talked about her.

Yoon Min noticed the change of his expressions so she asked him softly, “Are you alright, Sir?”

He was lost in his thoughts for some time before shaking his head and closed his eyes faintly, “Yeah, I am. Just...how's Eomma?”

She licked her lips and pressed them together, “Doctors said there are neither any good or bad news. She's stuck in the same condition.”

Seokjin hardly found time to visit his mother in the hospital. Time wasn’t always the excuse. Sometimes, it was his fragile confidence in the fact his mother would wake up one day. He couldn’t bear to see her lifeless state, laying on the hospital bed for years and like a useless son, he couldn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t an uncertain matter that she wouldn’t die soon. As a result, it's been a long time he actually went to the hospital to see her.

But Yoon Min never seemed to act like him. She always had hope and visited her every month with the faith that she would actually wake up. So he let her take care of her. Yoon Min made his life so much easier and comfortable.

Without wasting another second, he permitted her, “Fine. You can go.”

Yoon Min had the widest smile on her lips as she thanked him quickly and took long steps to leave his office.

She closed the door and that's when she heard his voice behind the doors,

“I feel so lonely without her.”

He probably meant his girlfriend.